Details

Statistics

Would like some shading advice.

So I'm colouring a picture and would like to know if there's and way to better achieve the effects I'm going for.I'm mostly asking for advice on how to shade and colour the carousel creature given the intended look. I'd like the feathers and mane to look pearlescent, and the entire creature should look glossy.

As a general rule, light is opaque, and shadows are transparent. The darkest point of a shadow is actually right next to the highlight, so that will not only create a more realistic effect, but it will cause those highlights to pop like crazy.

my suggestion would be to add highlights, not necessarily pure white, but find an object in your house that has a glossy finish, like a nice ceramic mug with a gloss finish, or look up photos on the internet of carousal horses, most of them have hard highlights because of the easy reflection of light! Right now when i look at it, the picture has a matte finish, making it look like there is peach fuzz or texture to diffuse the light rather than reflect.

Honestly thats up to you! add another layer and play with it until you are satisfied! The harder the highlight the more you emphasis that glossiness you're looking for! But only you can say if its the right amount or not since it is your vision.

Basically, it's just a weirdly shaped carousel horse, so it should look kind of shiny and glossy. At the same time, some of the colours are suppossed to look sort of like pearlescent paint, like [link] though in the colours I'm using.